Oh, people of Britain! Where for art thou brain cells?
Today, on the news, it showed one of their reporters going 'on patrol' with the Mountain Rescue team in Snowdownia. Quite recently, they had rescued walkers from the side of a mountain who were unprepared, lost and stuck. If you're interested, you can read it here. Do you know what frustrates me most? That, given the weather we're having at the moment, they had the bright idea to go mountaineering. Seriously, where is your common sense?! Why, when half the country's schools are closed, people are unable to get to work, road salt stocks are practically all used up, old age pensioners are worrying about the cost of heating their homes because it's around -3 degrees all the time, and the Met Office is recommending that all unnecessary travelling is put on hold, did they think "I know, today I'd like to hike up Snowdon in my trainers and this nice warm tracksuit."? Just how tapped do you have to be?
There are other things in this vain of questionable sense, that always happen in cold weather, that drive me absolutely potty. Like people who run out onto ice to save their dog. Now, do some maths for me here please. Take a look at an average size man, and an average size dog. There's a pretty good chance that your average man weighs approximately 6 times more than your average dog. (I've assumed dog = 2 stone, man = 12 stone.) Doggy has four feet, man has only two. Now, take a look at that ice. The pressure exerted by your two feet, man, are greater than that of your four legged, one sixth of your weight dog. He may be struggling for traction, but he'll be struggling a hell of a lot more once you've broken the ice by falling through. By now you're probably thinking 'bloody hell, what a cold hearted bitch', but you'd be wrong. I have two pet cats who have gotten stuck up more trees than I'd like to think of, and climbed onto more roof tops than I'd care to number but I don't climb up and get them. The moral of the story is that if you can get there, you can get back. It might be more fiddly, but it is almost always possible. (The obvious exception here is, I think, if your path gets destroyed and you are stuck on the opposite side of a deep impassible gorge.) And also, haven't you heard the same story, ten times each winter, every year since the year dot? And the advice is always the same: Do Not Follow Your Dog Onto The Ice. And it is almost always followed by: In These Treacherous Conditions, Keep Your Dog and All Small Children On A Lead And Close To You At All Times.
On the note that Horlicks is the shit, I'm going to go. Night night, all.